Jim O'Rourke and Barbara Hutchinson have been part of the effort to have a United Nations International Year acknowledging the importance of rangelands and the people of rangelands for many years. On March 15, 2022, the UN General Assembly finally approved this proposal. Listen to Jim and Barbara describe why this matters for people who already know and care about rangelands and how you can heighten awareness of the social and ecological importance of rangelands worldwide.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE IYRP AT THESE LINKS

(Live links are on the episode website at https://artofrange.com/episodes/aor-81-welcome-2026-intl-year-rangelands-pastoralists)

Main IYRP website: https://iyrp.info/

Introduction to the IYRP (Video) - https://youtu.be/zToSadWebwc?list=PLgz33fsrwiVkGSJE-I84wsKL8nOfRPdyU

Pastoralism is the Future (Video) - https://youtu.be/DeqITzac9Ac

Who are pastoralists? (Word Cloud) - https://iyrp.info/who-are-pastoralists

What are rangelands? (Word Cloud) - https://iyrp.info/what-are-rangelands

North American section: https://iyrp.info/north-america

Facebook IYRP Global - https://www.facebook.com/IYRP2026

Facebook IYRP North America - https://www.facebook.com/IYRPNorthAmerica2026/

Twitter IYRP Global - https://twitter.com/IYRP2026

Twitter IYRP North America - https://twitter.com/IYRPNA2026

Instagram IYRP Global - https://www.instagram.com/iyrp2026/

Instagram IYRP North America - https://www.instagram.com/iyrpnorthamerica2026/

TRANSCRIPT AVAILABLE at https://artofrange.com/episodes/aor-81-welcome-2026-intl-year-rangelands-pastoralists